Health Research Conference: A focus on Native and First Nations of the Northeast This conference grant application (R13/U13) requests funding in support of a large scale Indigenous Health Research conference focusing on Native American and First Nations peoples of the Northeast. The Northeastern region includes both the United States and Canada. In the U.S., the Northeast region represents states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. It also represents provinces in Canada, such as Ontario and Quebec. Expected to generate considerable regional, national and international attention, this conference will provide a substantive forum of scholarly, professional and community-based health practitioners, researchers and advocates to advance and disseminate cutting edge innovations. The main goal of the conference is to ensure that public, healthcare professionals and research communities are informed and educated on the recent advances in Native American and First Nation health and health disparities research and existing resources to ensure ethical, safe research activities. Primary rationale for the Indigenous Health Research conference's Northeastern Native American focus corresponds with respectful recognition that the conference sites will be located directly within the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee people. Having maintained continuity in their relationships to these ancestral territories since time immemorial and despite ongoing colonial intrusion, encroachment and the geo-political impositions of the Canadian and U.S nation-states, the Haudenosaunee remain among the most populous Indigenous nations of the Central and Western New York regions, and are also well represented in reservation communities bordering New York state to the north in Ontario and to the northeast in Quebec. It is expected that this conference will attract many Native and non-Native specific communities, such as academic researchers, students, health care practitioners, and community leaders all around the Northeast region of the United States and Canada. Health Research Conference: A focus on Native and First Nations of the Northeast The problem being addressed by this conference is public health as it relates to basic human rights. According to the Human Rights Centre, indigenous peoples right to the highest attainable standard of health are a fundamental human right protected by law. This conference would bring together Indigenous healers who are working together to ensure high quality care rather than continue the path of sub- standard health care within an archaic, dysfunctional system.